Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 24 (reporter Ji Ye, Prince Jiang) International Olympic Committee President Bach said on the 24th that the World Health Organization said that “the new coronavirus pandemic is accelerating”, which led them to decide to postpone the Tokyo Olympic Games, the delay is to save lives.
After Bach held a conference call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the two sides reached a consensus that the Tokyo Olympic games originally scheduled to be held from July 24 this year to August 9 will be rescheduled to 2020, but not later than the date of the summer of 2021. As a result, Tokyo Olympic Games became the first postponed Olympic games in the 124-year history of modern Olympics.
In an interview, Bach said that the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee agreed on the consensus he reached with Abe.
“This is to save lives.” Bach said.
He also said that he had not discussed with Abe the cost of delaying the Tokyo Olympics.
At present, the new specific date of Tokyo Olympic Games has not been confirmed. Bach said: “After two hours of conference call (with Abe), I can’t give you a definite answer. This is why we decided that we need at least four weeks to evaluate these problems, and these problems are not the only ones.”
Next, the IOC Coordination Committee and the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee will set a new date.
After the outbreak, the International Olympic Committee has always insisted that the Tokyo Olympic Games will be held as scheduled. On the 22nd local time in Lausanne, they said they would make a final decision in the next four weeks, and the extension is an alternative. However, the pressure from all sides followed. As the epidemic situation in many countries deteriorated, the Olympic qualifier was canceled due to the epidemic, and some athletes could not be guaranteed to prepare for the battle. The voice of people asking to postpone the Olympic Games is getting higher and higher.
Bach said that the recent spread of the epidemic in the world made them have little choice but to postpone the Olympic Games.